This BYU lineman's favorite food may make you uncomfortable

Ului Lapuaho looked over his BYU media guide questionnaire and stopped at one of the questions: "Favorite food."

He thought for a second, about something his mom made when he was growing up. Oh, how he missed it.

"Horse meat," he wrote.

Lapuaho didn't think much of it at the time: "It was nothing to me; I wanted some horse meat."

The reaction was a good deal more than he thought it would be. The Utah native likes to keep a low profile, but that was out the window as soon as fans read about the 6-foot-7, 333-pound offensive lineman who would choose horse meat over, say, mac 'n' cheese.

"I got a lot of people laughing," Lapuaho says, allowing a chuckle as well.

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Lest fans think the 21-year-old chows down on horse hoagies at training table, Ului (who friends call 'Louie') says horse meat is a Tongan delicacy prepared at home only on rare occasions, like holidays. It's called lo'oi ho'osi, and it tastes like beef.

"It's the way my mom does it," he explains. "She would shred the meat and boil it. Then she puts in spices. Some coconut cream, onions. I'd be making it myself every day if I could. She puts it on a plate with rice and potatoes. It's great."

Food is a big deal in his family, in part because his family is so large. Ului is one of 12 children to mom, Mele, and father, Rob, who was also an offensive lineman at BYU. Ului's older brother Al played defensive line at Utah State and is trying to catch on with a pro team. But Ului is the biggest, and he gets comments when he's shown in photos with his next-youngest brother, Nyles.

"They say, 'Oh, he's the one who didn't get to eat,'" Ului says.

Not true. Ului's parents owned a restaurant that served Hawaiian food for a time. Ului cooked and cleaned. (No, horse meat was not served.) These days they're customers rather than proprietors.

"You know we're going to the all-you-can-eat buffet," Ului deadpans. "That's the only way everyone is going to get fed."

And which buffet?

"The person who decides is my mom," he says. "She would always be pregnant, so it's whatever she's craving: Chinese, American, Golden Corral."

Lapuaho has a serious side behind his easy smile and manor. He spent the last two years on an Latter-Day Saints mission in Australia, waking up at 6 a.m. and batting away "spiders the size of my hand" from his cereal box. He and his group would go door-to-door spreading the church's beliefs in the mornings, and then teach in the afternoons.

"Best two years of my life," he says.

That interrupted his football career, but clearly it didn't disrupt it. Lapuaho started and played more than half the snaps last weekend against UConn, even though it was his first game since 2011. The Cougars gained 513 yards behind Lapauho and his linemates. They allowed no sacks.

"I kinda forgot what it was all about," he says. "The crowd is the sound that got me. The last game I played, there were maybe 1,000 people. Then you walk into UConn stadium: The sounds, the lights, the cheers. I was kind of in shock."

He might be in shock again this weekend as the Cougars travel to Austin to face Texas. Lapuaho will be in one of the most crucial positions on the field – left tackle, assigned to protect quarterback Taysom Hill against a Charlie Strong pass rush. The winner of Saturday's game has a good shot at cracking the top 25 next week. Both teams received votes this week.

"I keep asking my coaches every day," Ului says, "'Do you still trust me?'"

The answer is certainly yes; Hill himself has been clear about how much he likes his line.

Do teammates trust his taste in food? That's another question altogether. Though fans on social media absolutely love the 6-foot-7 freshman with a hankering for horse meat. After the UConn win, one follower tweeted:

"I did not think it through," Lapuaho laughs. "If I had it over again, I would have put 'spaghetti.' "